The Superbug Sequence

The Superbug Sequence is a bio-thriller set in the not-so-distant future that dramatizes a world where billionaire industrialist, Castleton Bering, schemes to wrest control of the antibiotic market for his own personal power and financial gain. To execute his plans, Bering recruits a ruthless team of operatives who will target four pharmaceutical companies developing a new class of antibiotics. Bering plans to steal those firms' molecular designs and retain sole ownership of what has become a scarce and valuable resource: drugs that have the potential to cripple the virulent MDROs (Multidrug-Resistant Organisms), holding the U.S. healthcare system and its government hostage. The Superbug Sequence begins in East Africa, where prominent science writer Terrence Landau contracts an affliction which he carries across the Atlantic right into the Oval Office. Landau's intractable medical problems become a symbol of the battle being fought against unseen microbes infecting the bodies of people across the globe. Meanwhile, Bering begins his rogue operation by wreaking havoc at Aurora Pharmaceuticals, a small firm based in Boston. The cyber-attack seeks to uncover the firm's cache of diverse intellectual properties; namely, a group of molecular designs and specific instructions for how the individual molecules could be synthetically blended to behave as potent antibiotics. What Bering does not count on is the brilliance and tenacity of the investigative agents the U.S. government has called in to deal with the cyber-crime at Aurora. Colonel Isidore Ehrlich, Ph.D. and the sagacious biochemical sleuth from the FBI, Dr. Paula Fitzgerald, are asked to lead the investigation. Both experts are strong-willed and, although they clash at times, they not only come to respect each other's expertise, but on one of the darkest nights of the investigation, their connection unexpectedly deepens. As they continue to probe for clues, they are horrified to discover evidence that Bering plans to use state-of-the-art nano-robot technology to spread disease against individuals and governments. This chilling realization leads them to believe that Bering's enterprise poses an immense and imminent threat to the United States and the world. As The Superbug Sequence unfolds in Africa, the United States, and Estonia, it interweaves cyber-crime, microbiological wizardry, conflicting views on the American healthcare crisis, and a burgeoning romance into an eerie bio-thriller. The novel is a thought-provoking parody about capitalism and the hazards of biotechnology.